A method for fast selection of text items from a list using a numeric telephone keyboard and an apparatus for fast and simple selection of letters from an electronic directory is provided.
In order to enter letters with a numerical keyboard, it is common to associate groups of letters with each numeric key.
Electronic telephones with a display are today usually equipped with an electronic directory that allows to store approx. one hundred names together with the corresponding telephone numbers. Tradition, cost and the limited space available have led to a situation where the numeric keyboard originally designed for telephone numbers is still being used.
Because fewer keys are available than necessary for input of letters and international characters, each numeric key has to be associated with more than one letter. A standard alphabetical sequence has been established for this.
In order to recall any item from the electronic directory, the following steps are required:
Select function xe2x80x9ctelephone directoryxe2x80x9d
Enter one or more of the first letters of the desired person""s name. While it is desirable to enter as many letters as possible in order to determine the correct result, entering letters is tedious because of the multiple-function keyboard. Up to eight keys have to be pressed in order to enter two characters.
An Enter key accepts the input and displays the directory. This step is omitted in some implementations to speed up the process, however this complicates the input
process. Without an Enter step, it is unclear whether the arrow keys scroll the directory or move the cursor within the input string.
In the directory the item that is alphabetically nearest to the text input is highlighted.
If this is the desired item, it can be activated for dialling. Otherwise, it is necessary to scroll within the directory with the arrow keys. This is common when people with aphabetically adjacent names like xe2x80x9cMiller J.xe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9cMiller P.xe2x80x9d or company branches like xe2x80x9cEsso Hamburgxe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9cEsso Hanoverxe2x80x9d are stored.
Most telephone manufacturers offer shortcuts as an alternative. These shortcuts link items either with a number (hard to remember) or to multiple functions of existing keys (even more complicated). The Call List (the last n calls can be recalled from a list) is no substitute for the full directory, either.
One manufacturer offers the xe2x80x9cJog Dialxe2x80x9d, a dial to scroll in an electronic directory. This is faster than with a keyboard and the dial reacts to the speed that it is manipulated. The xe2x80x9cJog Dialxe2x80x9d is easy to understand, too. But the time advantage is insignificant, because the fingers have to move from the keyboard to the dial.
Another manufacturer has demonstrated a mobile phone that reacts to voice input. Because of the unreliable operation of voice recognition, (especially under difficult conditions during travel with background noise), this allows only a selection from a small subset of the directory. So currently this solution is almost unusable.
One manufacturer produces a phone with an LCD touch screen in place of the keyboard. This allows to include a powerful graphical user interface with a pen as an input device. Although the cost is high for such a solution, entering simple digits is not as easy as with a keyboard. A fast name selection with one finger (maybe even the thumb) is not achieved by this solution.
The invention aims to offer a fast selection of text items from a list of between twenty and a few hundred items using a numerical telephone keyboard, with an easy-to-use and fast procedure and a simple construction that can be produced at a low price.
The invention is based on the task to develop an apparatus and a method for a fast selection of text items from a list stored in an electronic memory using a numerical telephone keyboard.